On February 6, 2023, in the regime-controlled northern Syrian city of Aleppo, residents wait as rescue crews search for survivors beneath the debris of a fallen building.
More than 2,600 people were killed in a massive earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday. The cold winter weather made matters worse for the hundreds of people who were left injured or homeless and made it more difficult to locate survivors.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroyed entire apartment buildings in Turkish cities and added to the damage caused by millions of Syrians being displaced due to years of war.
The greatest earthquake to hit Turkey this century struck in severe weather just before daybreak, and it was swiftly followed by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in the early afternoon.
Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a Syrian living in the northern town of Atareb, remarked, "It felt like the end of the world." "People need to be saved since it's quite chilly and raining heavily."
In the wake of an earthquake, rescuers are at the scene of a fallen building in Hama, Syria, on February 6, 2023.
The second earthquake, which was powerful enough to knock down additional buildings and was felt throughout the area like the first, put rescue workers who were attempting to extricate victims from the wreckage in peril.
A lady standing close to the rubble of her seven-story apartment building in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, said: "We were violently trembled. At home, there were nine of us. My two boys are still trapped in the wreckage, and I'm waiting for them."
She suffered bruises on her face and was recovering from a broken arm.
Since an earthquake in the distant South Atlantic in August 2021, the earthquake was the largest one ever recorded globally by the US Geological Survey.
According to Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, there were 1,651 fatalities and 11,119 injuries. According to data from the Damascus government and rescuers in the insurgent-controlled northwest of the country, at least 968 people were murdered in Syria.
Attempts to analyse and mitigate the effect were hampered by poor internet connections and damaged roads linking some of the worst-affected cities in the south of Turkey, which are home to millions of people.
Conditions for those buried in debris or left homeless were anticipated to get worse as some locations experienced nighttime temperature drops to close to freezing. After weekend snowstorms ravaged the nation, rain began to pour on Monday.
On February 6, 2023, a resident of the village of Jandaris in the countryside of the Syrian city of Afrin in the rebel-held region of Aleppo Province sits in front of a destroyed structure after an earthquake.
Since a tremor of a comparable magnitude ravaged the densely populated eastern Marmara Sea area near Istanbul in 1999, killing more than 17,000 people, this earthquake's death toll in Turkey is already the biggest.
The greatest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939, according to President Tayyip Erdogan, who is gearing up for a challenging election in May. However, he said that officials were doing everything they could to contain the tragedy.
Despite the fact that it is winter, it is cold, and there was an earthquake at night, he remarked, "Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts."
Following the second earthquake, a building fall was shown on Turkish official television TRT in the province of Adana in the south. It was unclear right away if it had been evacuated.
The health ministry said that 538 people had died and more than 1,326 had been injured in Syria, which had already been devastated by more than 11 years of civil conflict. Emergency personnel reported 430 deaths in the northwest of Syria, which is controlled by rebels.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the earthquake would further worsen the plight of millions of Syrians who are already suffering from a humanitarian crisis brought on by the country's civil conflict.
Reuters journalists observed several rescue workers combing through a mountain of debris, all that was left of a large structure, and pulling out pieces of wreckage as they hunted for survivors in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir. They sometimes raised their hands and commanded silence as they searched for signs of life.
40.155 SRY